Alone In The Mall
by Todd Cooper
Summary: September 24th, 1998. As the pernicious t-Virus spreads unchecked throughout Raccoon City, a group of survivors find themselves trapped in a shopping mall-turned-bloodbath. Surrounded by unrelenting masses of the undead and other biological monstrosities, the survivors soon come to the realization that escape from the mall is only the beginning.


Just a couple of words before we begin our tour into the depths of survival horror, the obvious is that this is a not-for-profit piece of self-glorified fanfiction; a labour of love to a franchise that has defined a large portion of my life. For that reason, I decided to approach writing this story with the same sense of severity and importance I would with my own original novels, with the complete understanding and intention that at the expense of endless hours of my time, money and energy, there will be no paycheck, no recognition, possibly a cease and desist, and my work holds about as much weight on the sea of _BIOHAZARD_ canon that a lewd Chris/Wesker fic or questionable _Sonic_ crossover would. That's all fine and dandy, because I'm doing this if only for my love of the franchise and the world it has created if nothing else. I own nothing of this franchise, any and all appreciation should go to the many game developers who work hard for many restless hours to reach a deadline and release a finished product worthy of our admiration, they deserve all the praise they can get.

My journey with the franchise began before my birth and continues to this day, unlike many of you, I didn't have the fortune of being old enough to experience these games as they were released. Instead, it began with my father picking up a copy of the original game for the PlayStation in early 1997 and spending endless hours roaming through that mansion, likely shooting zombies, unlocking doors, screaming at the lack of inventory space and running out of ink ribbons - all while my pregnant mother was forced to watch. I think that rubbed off on lil' fetus me because I spent the first seven years of my life attached to another series about a morally-questionable corporation creating biological monsters that return to life and start eating poor and hapless people - of course, that series was _Jurassic Park_. A few months after gaining access to the marvels of home internet in mid-2005, I happened across a low-quality version of the CG intro to _Resident Evil 3_ while browsing through various _Angelfire, Freewebs_ and _Geocities_ websites and within a short time afterwards I was engorging myself in a series which to that point had been completely foreign to me. I spent weeks on end visiting numerous fan communities, boards and websites and the official flash sites. Full of information and screenshots of characters and monsters from games I hadn't even played - and writing my own earliest (albeit terrible) _Resident Evil_ fanfictions. I still recall fond memories of waking up on Christmas that year to open my presents that my father had gifted me and being greeted with _Code Veronica X, Outbreak_ and _Resident Evil 4_. The following year, it was a ton of _Resident Evil_ action figures from my aunt, a screenplay of the first film signed by the main cast and director from my mom, and a DIY plastic and aluminum T-Virus vial that my uncle made himself from a drawing I did, and in that time I joined numerous roleplaying communities (one of which _Alone In The Mall_ takes its name and is very loosely based upon), made 2/4's of a shoddy _fan film_ , spent hours slicing at ganados, running from zombie elephants and grew up on countless _Resident Evil_ AMV's and the simply fantastic amount of beloved parody content from the fanbase, and while many of the websites and communities I grew up with are no longer around, I stay proud knowing the fandom lives on in a new generation, with new communities, fans, and content creators.

It should be noted that _Alone In The Mall_ is not a _Resident Evil_ story **_per se_** , it's rather a separate entity foremost, an individual tale set against the backdrop of the _Resident Evil_ universe that follows a rag-tag team of survivors as they attempt to survive a week in the hellscape of Raccoon City at the height of the 1998 viral outbreak. I can't begin to express how many hours of research I poured over the files and journals of events found in _Resident Evil 2, 3, Umbrella/Darkside Chronicles_ and the _Outbreak_ series in an attempt to build an accurate, detailed and sensical timeline of events for these characters to weave between; and while there is an array of returning characters from the franchise (some obscure, others beloved) and much overlap between this story and the events of the main games, out of respect to the canon and the story the Capcom has crafted this is not a story that will feature the adventures of Mr. _Kennedy,_ Ms. _Valentine_ or the _Redfield duo_ embarking in any shenanigans, their stories can be found in the official series of games, _which you should go buy and play if you haven't already._

Sincerely,  
 **Todd Cooper,** author of _**Alone In The Mall.**_

 _(By the way, have you noticed that everyone in real life walks with tank controls? Seriously, try strafing side-to-side_ _as characters do in video games now, it feels very clumsy and awkward.)_


End file.
